Nonfiction | December 01, 1991
Shared Voices
Mary Lee Settle
This essay is not currently available online.
Perhaps the most private experiences are the most universal. I wonder about this. I know that for talented, dreaming children growing up in the South, there is a common shadow line of isolation that is crossed, and that we cannot know for years how strongly it has affected us. It is that moment when, after seeking, we find someone to share a private language, a private hope, not taste, but true pitch, not an accepted “artistic” experience, but a friend who, in a desert, speaks the language we thought was alien and private.
If you are a student, faculty member, or staff member at an institution whose library subscribes to Project Muse, you can read this piece and the full archives of the Missouri Review for free. Check this list to see if your library is a Project Muse subscriber.
Want to read more?
Subscribe TodaySEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT
Editors' Prize Winner
Jun 02 2021
Opera House
Opera House By Robert Stothart Everything seemed married to everything else. —Gustave Baumann, printmaker, Santa Fe Overture A mere 7,918 miles in diameter, Earth, our home together, travels a minuscule… read more
Nonfiction
Jun 02 2021
The Valley of Boys
The Valley of Boys Sage Marshall Boys, boys, a valley of boys. We lived in a small town. The snow rose in silent blankets outside the classroom window. It came… read more
Nonfiction
Mar 02 2021
A Series of Tubes
Although widely ridiculed for the statement, the late Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was right when he said, “The Internet is a series of tubes.” He was just off by a… read more